MOBILE, Ala. {AP} Tropical Storm Barry plowed across the Florida Panhandle and into Alabama on Monday, rapidly weakening as it lashed the region with heavy rain and wind that knocked out power and blocked roads with fallen trees.

Barry was downgraded to a tropical depression after it moved inland and all hurricane and tropical storm warnings were dropped.

"The main thing we're concerned with now is the flooding," said Trisha Wallace, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

By late morning, Barry's maximum sustained wind speed had dropped from near 65 mph to 30 mph, below the minimum for a tropical storm, and it was expected to continue weakening.

No major damage was reported in Alabama as the core of the storm blew into the state, but residents were warned of the possibility of flooding and tornadoes.

"We're hoping this system will keep moving," said Scott Adcock, a spokesman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. He said fallen tree limbs had closed many roads on the Florida state line.

The wind kept Jim Caton awake all night in Andalusia, Ala., which was in the storm's path.

"We have power lines and trees down. Some very large trees down, and a lot of debris," Caton said.

While some visitors fled the coast, others thought the storm was entertaining.

"The whole place was just rocking," Frank Kennedy of Jacksonville, Ark., said at Grayton Beach, Fla. "It was fun watching garbage cans rip through the streets."

The storm blacked out more than 37,000 of Gulf Power Co.'s 182,000 Florida customers as tree limbs downed feeder lines, but restoration work was well under way before daybreak, said spokesman John Hutchinson.

Tornado and flood watches were in effect for parts of southeastern Alabama, southwestern and south-central Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, the National Weather Service said.

"The main threat now is the rainfall," National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield said in Miami. "It should continue moving through Alabama, so we've really got to focus now more on Alabama, northern Mississippi and beyond here as it moves inland with the rainfall potential."

Mayfield said 6 to 8 inches of rain was likely with some isolated higher amounts.

At 11 a.m. EDT, Barry was centered about 25 miles southwest of Selma, Ala., and moving north-northwest at about 15 mph. Forecasters said a gradual turn toward the northwest at a slower speed was expected later Monday.

Barry is the second named storm of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm already had dumped more than a foot of rain on parts of southeast Florida last week before moving into the Gulf of Mexico, where it briefly threatened Louisiana before veering back toward the Florida Panhandle.

Eight Panhandle counties had advised residents to evacuate and Franklin County ordered evacuation of three islands.

The Air Force sent about 40 of its C-130 cargo aircraft and about 300 personnel from Hurlburt Field near Fort Walton Beach, Fla., to Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. All flights were canceled at Pensacola Regional Airport.

In Florida's Bay County, which includes Panama City, officials said less than a dozen roads were closed by water. One bridge in Franklin County was washed out.

"It was just like a long heavy rainstorm," said Charles Goodman, a spokesman for the Bay County Emergency Operation Center. "We've been through this before and our system works well."